Used Win8 for a month or so, like it in general, but most of the time I find myself still using the desktop. I like the idea and design of the Metro apps, however they seem to be annoyingly slow and user-unfriendly. For example, the Mail app can take more than half a minute to launch, while the Office 2010 Outlook takes less than half the time. Also you cannot switch out of the app while waiting for it to start. For desktop apps, if the startup time of a certain app is slow, you can just launch a browser or media player or whatever during the wait. For Metro apps, if you switch out during the startup to browser the web or something, when you switch back, it will still be at the startup screen. So you need to keep staring at the whirling circles when waiting for the Metro app's slow startup. This kind of things make the Metro apps really annoying to use IMHO.

Welcome to Windows 8, the soon to be most epic fail ever for desktop users.

And your not alone mate, that above is the reason most users won't go near it. Hell, a good 90% of the people I know will be sticking with Windows 7 simply because of how much of a mess 8 is for desktop users.

yes, it's just you... and you CAN switch to another app while starting one up:
1. if you've got one that's slow and you know this just start it, snap to the side then use what you want or switch to desktop with win+d or whatever (but TBH i NEVER shut down the mail app or outlook)
2. you CAN switch to anything, apps start in the backgroud just fine

and saying all metro apps suck so bad then giving one example wich is pretty subjective (my mail app starts up around 3-4 secs) is not a good way to start an argument - but plenty of the metro apps suck, buggy or lack features i give you that

1. it will change with time, MS itself stated that they'll continually update their metro apps
2. all app stores are alike in this respect: 90% of the stuff is utter crap, deal with it and find your preferred 10%

I haven't experienced any of the problems you have. None of the apps start up slowly for me, including Mail. But I'm sure I have selected another app while one is opening (the splash screen showing), gone back to that app, and it's opened fine in the background, quite a few times, so I don't know why the splash screen remains for you.

The very first time I installed Windows 8 on real hardware, the store kept crashing every time I tried to download apps, and even a couple of the built in apps didn't work properly. Given the hardware I have, the fault isn't on my end.

I've had the same issue. Especially with the Mail app. Notorious for still being at the loading screen if I'm multi-tasking and go back to it. The other issue I experience over and over again is the store claiming there are updates for apps, going in to do them and they disappear mid-update. So the notification never goes away and said apps never get updated.

I'll be honest though, haven't had much time to sit and tinker with it. My other half uses that machine in the office when I'm busy on the main machine in the living room.

The very first time I installed Windows 8 on real hardware, the store kept crashing every time I tried to download apps, and even a couple of the built in apps didn't work properly. Given the hardware I have, the fault isn't on my end.

1. owning an expensive gear does not mean it works properly2. are you talking about rtm?3. i have a friend who complains about random app crashes so it is entirely possible that there's plenty to be smoothen out yet; i can't really say anything in this matter, my dell studio xps runs win8 perfectly well

It does if you're not an idiot and are technically savvy. My machines work top notch because I know how to take care of them and I know how to optimize them to utilize their full potential. So yes, if a particular software (or OS in this case) doesn't function properly, chances are it has nothing to do with my machine as surprise, the only thing that's changed is said software

That being said, that doesn't mean something wasn't changed in the OS to force me to have to tweak and optimize everything all over again...but that's really besides the point.

1. owning an expensive gear does not mean it works properly2. are you talking about rtm?3. i have a friend who complains about random app crashes so it is entirely possible that there's plenty to be smoothen out yet; i can't really say anything in this matter, my dell studio xps runs win8 perfectly well

It does if you're not an idiot and are technically savvy. My machines work top notch because I know how to take care of them and I know how to optimize them to utilize their full potential. So yes, if a particular software (or OS in this case) doesn't function properly, chances are it has nothing to do with my machine as surprise, the only thing that's changed is said software

That being said, that doesn't mean something wasn't changed in the OS to force me to have to tweak and optimize everything all over again...but that's really besides the point.

no disrespect mate i don't know you or your tech skills but had my fair share of kiddies with a gear worth a nice convertible and a mouth bigger than bill gates's bank account bragging about being tech savvy who complain about freezes but running custom drivers, "optimizing" the os (often referring to dated crap on the interwebz about system services disabling stuff they don't no nothing about to gain 30MB of memory when having 16 gigs of it) and overclocking 'till instability so i learned to take these kind of comments with a pinch of salt and a big glass of distrust - and of course OSes can respond differenty to custom settings like overclock

but again: i'm not saying you fit this description, hence point 3 of my previous comment